Now that CD-adapco has become a CAA partner of Dassault what can we expect?

Will we get a better version of STAR CAT? swill STAR be part of CATIA product / simulia?

They've already started - there's a direct link between STAR-CD and ABAQUS

Dave,

There is some interesting history in these partnerships.

I believe that CD-adapco started the CAD / CFD link with SolidWorks back around 2003 when STARWorks first appeared.

Both CD and Fluent have had partnerships with Dassault, although the Fluent arrangement must have been at a higher level because Dassault was recommending Fluent for a period of time. This came to an end when ANSYS bought out Fluent.

I was at an CAE conference the day of the ANSYS announcement. It was interesting to see the effect of this announcement on both the Abaqus and Fluent people and their subsequent interaction.

Since then the links between CD-adapco and Abaqus have become stronger. The earlier agreement between Abaqus and Fluent was exclusive, i.e. it shut out CD-adapco.

Expect a closer working relationship between Dassault, CD-adapco, but a not buyout, at least not for a couple of years.

Regards Peter

What is CAA and when was this merging announced?

Actually they will be DSS partners, as in Dasault Systems as in CATIA....

Companies like CD-Adapco (i.e. small ones) tend to get bullied by their bigger customers into these kinds of arrangements. It's not often their choice to do development U-turns to fit in with some other product. The result is usually a bit of a kludge. Unless of course there is a buy out. But then again is CD-Adapco for sale??

There was no bullying by Dassault. This arrangement was mutually wanted by both sides.

No inference at all on the part of Dassault was intended. I used the word "customers", the people who stump up the $$$. It's amazing how reactive a supplier can become when the $$$ are mentioned.

Sorry - I misread your post. But its still true - nobody was bullied by anyone into this. Its a win for everyone, I think including customers.

Steve,

In business everything is for sale. Offer 1 USD and see if adapco accepts. Probably not. Offer the Fluent price and and you may get a different answer, or you may not.

Look at the books in detail and compare the company with its competition from all possible angles and then things may get more interesting. Assuming your pockets are deep enough based on the final number ...

One potential spanner in the works is OpenFOAM. It is about two years from being an easy to use serious CFD competitor. The growth of freeware really could change the price of CD-adapco and reduce the depth that buyers will have to reach into their pockets.

You can also look at how the Ansys empire (the dark side of the force) is growing, who are they buying out. Either directly or via Fluent. This provides some insight into the future of the CAE industry in the next few years.

On another point:

To see the benefits of CAA partners you need to run coupled applications. Partners now have access to the "other" code and experience in supporting clients with coupled problems.

Regards

Who benefits financially from this "mutual" arrangement. The answer is Dassault.

Dassault has various levels of partnership, named after various metals such as gold silver etc. With each grade of partnership you get specific level of interface from Dassault. Naturally the higher the grade the more Dassault charges for this "mutual" partnership.

Now look at the CAD interfaces available and the impact on the list price of the CFD software the interface is attached to. This is the reason why STAR with the Catia 5 interface is €2,000 more than the ProE, UG of SolidWorks interfaces. CD-adapco has little choice but to pass on the full cost to the user of this Dassault interface. The Dassualt interface for Star only runs if you have an ME2 type license. This ME2 license is only available from Dassualt for more than an additional €10K.

I cordially invite someone to explain the "value" of this position because most CAE users only see the cost attached to little used peripheral software added to a main product to "expand the pie" and hike up the annual license fee.

Regards